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The Department of Justice has fined Total Petrochemical $8.75 million for violating an air pollution settlement struck in 2007 covering Total's Port Arthur refinery in Texas. In the 2007 agreement, Total was tasked with upgrading the plant to reduce flaring, but the company failed to avert more than 70 such incidents from 2007 to 2011, the department said. Most of the fines are related to a misinterpretation of reporting requirements for flaring, said Nigel Tranter, manager of the Port Arthur facility.

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The Brazilian leaf-cutting ant and the Southeast Asian weaver ant have developed a way to sanitize themselves, their families and nesting materials with antimicrobial secretions. "We knew that [the secretions] help adults, and we knew that the brood survives and isn't constantly being affected by fungi. So we predicted that these secretions would help in keeping the brood healthy as well, and it was nice to find strong evidence showing that," said Christopher Tranter, who co-authored the study, which was published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The researchers say not all ant species have evolved this ability.

North West Upgrading has broken ground on its Sturgeon refinery project in Canada. The company will hire about 3,000 workers for the construction of the facility, which is expected to reach its initial 50,000-barrels-per-day phase by late 2016. "It's more viable now than it ever has been," said Ian MacGregor, chairman of North West Upgrading.

TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline remains vital to the oil and natural gas industry despite the delay in its approval, industry executives said. "It is still very strategic for Canada to be able to access the Gulf Coast refineries," said Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. TransCanada has already forged shipment deals with producers and refiners if it is built, said Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada.

Total is considering adding petrochemical capacity at its Port Arthur, Texas, facility to capitalize on the price advantage of natural gas production in the U.S. The development would be part of the company's biggest refining-facility investment in five years, said Patrick Pouyanne, Total's president of refining and chemicals.

A flaring of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide on Saturday and Sunday has caused Valero Energy to close a unit at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Equipment malfunctions appear to be the cause of the problem.